With their visionary status more or less agreed upon, there is the Blut Aus Nord before _The Work Which Transforms God_ and the Blut Aus Nord after _The Work Which Transforms God_. If you believe, as I do, that so much of what passes for "ground-breaking" today only feigns imagination, then the curiously French trio deserve much of the acclaim given to them. Unlike its predecessor, however, this album will not likely be mentioned for years or even a year after its release, as the group ready themselves between that defining moment and a more concentrated drawing from the well that eventually poisons the taker.

_MoRT_ places neither among the top black metal or ambient releases of the year. High expectations cannot be blamed for the dissipating interest felt over half of the disc's length. The album is composed of eight untitled pieces that play like fragments of previous tracks, reintroducing helix-like movements of contrary tones, dissonant serialized leads with sparse voices and no traditional (tremolo) metal technique used between. Naturally this takes some adjusting to, but what makes it so hard to endure is that the pallet is so limited. The title is an acroynm for Metamorphosis of Realistic Theories -- like ego. After listening to _MoRT_ I never want to hear the slide guitar again.

Starting from the first track, it's another fifteen minutes until these threads finally untangle into something approaching emotion. For a moment there seemed to be a clearing, some direction and a light protruding from what was so far a penumbrant bore. Then, just as suddenly, all reverted back into the cacophonous experiment.

If there is a method or concept to any of this, it is lost on me. It's not the density of layers or lack of immediate purpose that grates against the senses, but little purpose beyond the obvious tooling presented here, and worst of all: with such contemptible indifference.